About six months ago, I downloaded an app that enabled me to relax. In a busy day, it puts you in a mild hypnotic state, and lets you rest for a while. Then twenty minutes later it gently wakes you up and you feel super refreshed. I tried this app and hey it worked when it came to the twenty minute nap. But when I tried it at night, it often left me restless.

The app had failed.

Or had it?
Did it fail because I wasn’t listening to the instructions and implementing them as I should? The instructions on the app clearly said I need to listen to the same audio for three weeks. Three whole weeks. Who can be bothered with doing something for three whole weeks? Well, there you go. You’ve set the seed for failuer.

Often it’s easy to go slightly around in circles if something doesn’t work well.
So it may well be easy to say that a book like The Brain Audit does work better for services, or better for products, or better for B to B (Biz to Biz) or B to C (Business to Customers). In fact, it doesn’t work better or worse for any group. It just works equally well for any group that will apply it well.

With Pazon.com (who sold ignitions–which are products by the way) they lost a chunk of money. Actually went and made a loss right after applying The Brain Audit. At this stage it’s easy to give up if you’re unsure about a concept. And they chose not to. They went from a 16,000 pound loss to 90,000 pound profit.

And as I said: It’s easy to just slot a concept, or give up on the concept, because hey we’ve got a business to run, and we’re not in the business of trying out every concept that comes our way.

So if you were to try many of the concepts we talk about e.g. Yes-yes, testimonial acquisition, strategic alliances etc. you’re more than likely to FAIL.
(Yes, that’s correct). You’d fail because any concept has a certain depth of implementation. As humans we see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear. And ignore the rest. Then of course, things fail.

I am headed to my watercolour class in 45 minutes. I will be shown a technique by master painter Ted Sherwen. I will of course implement it “exactly” as he says. And it will fail. I always get crappy results. Without exception. I have to come back and spend all week tweaking and testing (and failing) and then when I go back the next week, I’ve improved dramatically. The cause of failure is always the inability of our brains to understand, assimilate and then implement a concept. That’s why an ongoing testing needs to be done in real time—and not necessarily in practice.

I just launched the Article Writing Masterclass after much discussion with my wife, and also in conjunction with existing article writing clients.
And despite my best efforts the first round of the sales page came out looking good, but not as clearly as I thought. Back and forth changes ensued. We’ve even pulled down the page, and I have to work on it before we put up the page again. This is from someone who wrote the book on The Brain Audit and who can write a salesletter with little or no effort.

The point remains. You can’t learn or hope to succeed purely on the basis of taking a concept and hoping it will work. You have to put paint on paper.  You have to see how the brush reacts with the paper. You have to see how the paint runs. You have to understand the temperature around you and how it will affect your painting.

You can’t hope to succeed until you do this over and over again.
Yes, an outsider will help you find your glitches.
Yes a mentor will see beyond the average person.
But failure is inevitable.

True success does indeed come from minor (and sometimes) major failure.
The Brain Audit is such a device. It can work for any business (and I’ve seen it work for hundreds of businesses). But only if the business owner has the ability to put changes on paper. That paint must go onto paper. You must fail first, and hope that you fail rather spectacularly.

Then, you will have repeatable success. Otherwise, all you have is a fluke.

There will be only one winner, of course…

And here’s where you can vote.
http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/F6BC11A5941952C8/
On www.brainaudit.com/blog, you’ll find loads of people who’ve submitted their photos. If you like any of the photos, please put in that person’s name in the survey below. Don’t worry about getting the name exactly right. We’ll be checking it, and we’ll work out the names (even if you do get the spelling slightly wrong).

May the best win.

http://surveys.polldaddy.com/s/F6BC11A5941952C8/

More photos of The Brain Audit 3.2. The Brain Audit Book and Super Cuatro are spotted in action.

The adventures of Super Cuatro, The Brain Audit Super Hero. Click to view larger images and view the entire portfolio.

On his way to the White House	Flying to the White House	At the White House with Mom

Conquers Washington, DC	Receiving the monumental Brain Audit	And his family in Washington, DC

At the airport with The Brain Audit	Takes all the seven bag of the conveyor belt	At the airport with mom Marina Brito

Marina Brito, Near Washington D.C., USA
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Here’s my photo for the Brain Audit contest. As you’ll see, my wife lent me a hand (or two).

Jon Pietz, Needham Massachusetts, USA
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The Stinker, er, Thinker.

Where Dave does all his best thinking.

Dave Charest, Brooklyn, NY, USA

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Chris Garrett in Matakana, New Zealand

Chris Garrett at Kelly Tarlton’s, Auckland, New Zealand

Chris Garrett, UK

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The Brain Audit Book Photo Competition Continues…. Here are a few photos for USA and Canada.

I’ve attached a few photos. I’m not sure which best shows what I’m trying to illustrate. Can you see the writing on the envelop that was used to send the book to me?

I wanted to ask the “real” police to take a photo in front of the station house but I was concerned I’d get arrested for being a nut!

Jacqueline Davis,  Wilmington, MA, USA

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My friend’s name is Charlemagne and he’s been part of the Psychotactics/5000BC ‘family’ (at least in this house) from the get go!!
Now 14, he is still interested in cartoons … ))

Noel Rodrigue, Gatineau (Aylmer), QC, Canada

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Randall Hardy,Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA

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And one more…

There is a story to explain the signficance of these pictures.

Several weeks ago, when the contest was first announced, I shared the information with my husband and asked him to help me think of a good idea.  Meanwhile, my son (Mark) was in his second week of kindergarten and happened to come home from school with his first library book (that he chose on his own), “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” by Dr. Suess.

A day or two later, as Mark and I sat in his “reading corner” to read his book, my husband walked by and said, “There’s your photo!”

As my husband was pointing out,  there is a lot of signficance to Mark’s FIRST book selection.  Most people receive that book as a high school graduation gift, but here is Mark, just starting his journey of education.  And here I am, continuing my education well beyond high school and enjoying my  life-long path of learning!

Susan Kruger, Dearborn, MI, USA

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Alan Aimer, Blakeslee, PA, USA

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HMMM, Only six red bags, which one am I missing?

Found it at last! Now, where did I park my stalled marketing program?

Gerry Bock, Surrey, BC, Canada

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Here are a few more entries for The Brain Audit Book from around the world

Much luck (to you and Sean… and me!)

Alex Kuzelicki, Australia
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If you haven’t made the Butter Chicken the recipe is on Page 113. And Yes! Sean can cook too!! Yummy stuff.

This is the butter chicken on its way to TVNZ- New Zealand. A small thank you for asking Sean on The Breakfast Show. And yes, if you are wondering the rest of the butter chicken was eaten by Renuka
The page again 113.

Renuka Menon, Psychotactics Office, Auckland, New Zealand
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Marsha colouring Cuatro

Marsha D’Souza, All of 5 years old, Auckland, New Zealand
(Marsha and Sean are best friends)
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

And the photos keep coming in for The Brain Audit competition. Today’s photos are from New Zealand  and all the way from the Arctic Circle.

It’s child’s play..

Martin Thompson, Auckland, New Zealand
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I am sending the photo of The Brain Audit book, which travelled with me and a couple of friends 150 km north of the Arctic Circle. We had to carry all our food for 10 days on our backs, but I couldn’t resist packing the book as well. There is something very weird (in the nicest way) about reading about marketing when you don’t see a living soul for days.

All the best from Europe.

Ondrej Ilincev, Prague, Europe
PS: I am the one on the right.
PPS: I thought there would be more snow as well, but we were very lucky with the weather and it was 20-25 degrees Celsius.
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few more photos

“Giants in their field”

Peggy Gower, Near Chicago, Il, USA
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Here is Cuatro studying the Brain Audit at MIT…I actually took this picture at night.

J
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And a few more from Milan

These photos of The Brain Audit were taken in Milan’s orthopedic joint replacement surgeon in the Seattle.

Milan Shannon Moore, Seattle, Washington, USA

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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few photos from New Zealand

And another one from Cornelia

And the last one…

PS. I had a lot of fun cutting, gluing etc.

Cornelia Luethi,  Auckland, New Zealand
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Thought I had better not disclose where you go for coffee or you will both be inundated with fans J

Steve Munford, Auckland, New Zealand
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Next Step: Send in your entries with Cuatro. The deadline is approaching.

You can download the images of Cuatro here.

>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

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The Brain Audit Book makes its way to the UK, India, USA and The Netherlands.

The Brain Audit Photo above is  called, “Can’t See The Forest For The Trees!”

And this one is called, “Air’s Thin Up Here.”

Dwight Schwersensky, California, USA
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“If I had to keep just one book out of my entire library, I would keep Sean D’Souza’s Brain Audit.”

Ankesh Kothari, Mumbai, India
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David Rothwell at hockey practice with Charlie and some light reading…We’re frowning because the sun’s in our eyes!

David Rothwell, UK
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Brain Audit Book photo. Since New Zealand is the land of the kazillion sheep and we have two border collies…I thought why not put the two together?

Erwin van den Boogaard, The Netherlands

P.S. Please tell Cuatro to relax, they don’t bite – at least not yet

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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Today we have the Brain Audit Book photos from the US and Germany

And another one

And the last one…

Perry Droast: Hanford, CA, USA
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Never trust a black cat on a Friday…

Heidi Dreher, Kolbingen in the South of Germany
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

The Brain Audit does make people outrageously happy ! Proof !  Noel (’look what I have here’…Hee, hee, hee) trying to make me jealous with his copy of the Brain Audit during a Skype call.
P.S. Postal strike in my region ! No kidding. Things should be back to normal on Thursday. Fingers crossed… I want to win the competition !

Luuk Christiaens, Merchtem (Belgium)
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I am an orthopedic joint replacement surgeon in the Seattle, Washington area and a raving fan of your work!  Took a few photos in the Operating Room with The Brain Audit Book.  Your concepts of focusing on one problem and one solution to get to the target profile has helped me to reshape not only my marketing, but also my surgical focus.  I have been able to hone my practice to the three operations that I really love and that focus has made me the most experienced surgeon in one of these (mobile bearing unicondylar knee replacements) in the entire Pacific Northwest!  Thanks again and keep the good stuff coming!!!

Milan Shannon Moore, Seattle, Washington, USA
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Just a taste of better things to come…Are you ready for the good stuff?

The value of a good education = priceless

Buy THIS Book – it’s GOOD!

Chase and The Brain Audit

Brain Traffic Control

Marina, Chase & The Brain Audit

All of Chase’s bags are off the conveyor belt

Marina Brito, Near Washington D.C. USA
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

Here are a few more Brain Audit Book photos from around the world…

My current job contains a lot of travel so I seem to spend 1/2 my life in airports… and every time I collect my bags I smile to myself. So, this seemed only appropriate for my entry I couldn’t actually find a non-moving conveyor at Heathrow so I had to settle for a moving one. I’ve attached the ‘making off’ to make you smile.

Needless to say, security gave me some very very funny looks

Shane Heenan: London, UK
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Bonnie Domeny: Sacramento CA, USA (This is Bonnie’s client Josh Walsh with The Brain Audit Book)
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Mike Hayden: Mountain View, California, USA
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

And here are some more entries…

Andy D’Silva at the airport with his red bag and The Brain Audit.

I know this should be the first photo

The last red bag has been taken off the conveyor belt but I think Andy has disappeared.

Andy D’Silva: Toronto, Canada
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I was lucky enough to be able to attend Ken McCarthy’s System Intensive UK seminar. In a master stroke of opportunism, I managed to grab Ken to pose for a photo with myself and the Brain Audit book. Unfortunately, the photo doesn’t really do either of us justice – but who cares!!

I am just thrilled to have been there and met the man who introduced me to yours and Sean’s crazy, but thoroughly entertaining and educational world.

Stephen Nettleton: Norwich, UK
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Here are a couple of photos from a very intelligent and wise marketing bird called Shaggy!

Stephanie Philp: Raglan, New Zealand
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

The entries for The Brain Audit Competition are pouring in. Over the next few days I will keep adding the photos.

The Brain Audit: Sydney Australia

Lance Scoular: The Savvy Navigator, Sydney, Australia

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Bob Janes: Brittany, NW France
The Brain Audit at the end of the world (this area is Penn-ar-Bed in Breton, Finistere in French). Somewhere out there is Canada, taken about a mile from here in strong winds and cold rain

Bob Janes: Brittany, NW France
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Mike Hayden: Mountain View, California, USA
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Retro Photo

A picture of me and Laurens Janszoon Coster in our hometown Haarlem. Coster is considered to be the inventor of the printing press, but… mainly in the Netherlands. Worldwide some German guy gets the credits. The story is similar to that of Tesla and Marconi. Coster and Tesla might have been the first to invent, but the other guy’s marketing was better. If only they would have had a copy of The Brain Audit…

Modern Photo

In case you said: “Lawrence Who?”
Coster on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurens_Janszoon_Coster
The Legend of Koster: http://www.psymon.com/koster/

Erwin van den Boogaard, The Netherlands
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>>Click to see the other Brain Audit Book Photos

What’s talent got to do with insulation? (Photo Courtesy: Businessweek.com)

So are we born with talent? Or is there a code?
Of course there’s a code. And that code is embedded not in what you learn, but how that learning is insulated?

Huh?
Think of it as a pipe filled with water. Which one will allow the water to get through faster? A pipe filled with holes? A pipe that allows leaks? Or the pipe that’s well insulated?: A pipe that allows almost no waste.

We’re talking about myelin. It’s an insulator for your learning. The more you learn, the more the myelin wraps insulation around that learning, so that you get faster, and faster, and faster. But not just faster, but every freakin’ pipe in your brain gets faster. Imagine having squillions of pipes pumping water—and with little or no waste.

This is what so-called “talented” people do. Their pipes have little or no waste.
They have developed thousands of pipes that pour thousands of gallons of water at a single moment. So when you look at headline and I look at a headline, we’re not looking with the same brain. I’m looking at the headline with thousands of gallons of water pouring into what I’m looking at. You on the other hand are just looking at a headline. Which is why I can tell you how what’s wrong with a headline a mile off. And you can’t.

It’s not because I was born with superpowers to read and de-construct headlines.
Rather it’s that I’ve learned. Just as you can learn.
And what’s more it’s teachable.

And you can do what every untalented person does: Make excuses.
Or you could start working on your myelin today.

The insulator that hates waste.

And see this video too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPACS8ogqus

P.S. If you’re interested in headlines, then these videos may help too.
http://www.youtube.com/user/psychotactics

Write. Edit. Write. Edit. Edit. Edit. Write.
Does this crazy self-editing sound familiar? If it doesn’t then you’re probably from Mars, because most of us without exception go through a self-edit phase when writing.

And it’s not only when writing that we self-edit
We self-edit when we’re walking. When you walk on gravel you walk differently than when you walk on stone.
We self-edit when we’re talking. We choose words and sentence structure, create different tones and sounds depending on who we’re speaking to, and depending on the language.
We self-edit for every darned thing, but there’s one major difference of course.

The self-correction doesn’t drive us bananas
Writing articles drives us crazy. We can’t seem to help the self-editing process. And the reason for that self-edit is the lack of competency.

Competency is a factor where you have adequate control over what you’re doing and are able to self-adjust quickly. The brain has reached a state of mind, where it has made enough mistakes so that it can now correct the mistakes and move on. Yes, it’s not about getting things right in your brain—it’s about getting things wrong. The brain has to make hundreds, even thousands of mistakes—and overcome those mistakes—to be able to reach a level of competency.

Once it reaches that level of competency it self-edits on the fly…
And the way to test this out for yourself is to get in front of a two-year old child. Get the child to walk on stone, and then on gravel. And they struggle, if not fall repeatedly. Get the child to say a sentence, and they struggle, while their brain edits and self-edits. And yes, you may say that the child’s brain is not fully developed, but quite the contrary is true. At the age of two, the child’s brain has more neural connections than at any point in their lives. As they grow older, they lose many of those neural connections, and so technically speaking at least, the child is in the best possible situation to learn—and learn quickly.

Yet they struggle
And that’s because the brain is trying to eliminate the mistakes. Once the brain makes enough mistakes—and corrects them—it now has a database of information that it can call upon at any time. Your brain has now reached its level of competency in that field, be it walking, talking or writing. Your brain is now able to self-edit on the fly.

And this is what great athletes do.
Great writers do.
Great singers do.
Great speakers do.
They are constantly self-editing, but they’ve reached such a high level of competency, that they’re now into the realm of ‘fluency.’

And that is when self-edit happens so quickly that we can’t see it.
It seems magical.
And when things seem magical, we allocate a word for it: We call it ‘talent.’

Talent, yeah right…
All it is, is a factor of self-editing. Over and over and over again.
Till your article writing looks like this:
Write. Write. Write. Edit. Write. Write. Write. Write. Edit.

P.S. I edited that article just twice after completing in one sweep. The total writing time for that article was less than 25 minutes from conception to final edit.

P.P.S. I started out writing less than 10 articles a year. I now write between 300-500 articles, write 2-3 books, create original content for websites, and have posted over 15,000 posts in forums in the last 5 years. If you told me that I was going to do any of this writing back in the year 2002, I’d have called you a dreamer. And yet, anyone can do it. Yes, anyone.

You would think so, right?

So let’s make Tiger Woods, Exhibit A.
Let’s sit down with a coffee and 20 minutes and listen to Geoff Colvin talk about why Tiger is not a natural talent (as you thought after all). And that in fact, talent is just a “reduction of mistakes”.

It’s on this blog.
Have a look.

http://q-ontech.blogspot.com/2008/12/gladwell-deliberate-practice.html

I could drone on about I.Q. Or you could do a bit of your own weekend reading on I.Q. (Note: Your parents, friends, teachers, colleagues won’t agree with you about this topic you’re about to read).

And the book he references

You can be anything you want.
There’s no such thing as talent.

Talent is merely this: Elimination of mistakes.
The fewer mistakes you make in anything, the more talented you are.

So as individuals, we need to focus on making mistakes.
And that’s the curse of our lives. Our schools are designed to prevent us from making mistakes. Our parents tell us not to make mistakes. Imagine a world where you were allowed to make a mistake on purpose.

We have such situations in our workshops.
It’s called a red-herring assignment.
I give an assignment that can’t be done.

Or at least has to be aborted, because otherwise it will go all wrong. Yet most folks complete the assignment. And then when they get back to the room to present their solution, they realise that they’ve made a mistake.

Now the brain is in super self-correct mode. It’s made the mistake and can fix it. Without making the mistake it can’t fix the mistake. Something in our brain requires the mistake to be our own. I can see you making a mistake and try to avoid making the mistake, but more often than not I will make the mistake myself.

And this mistake-making is a good thing.
Because talent is just the elimination of mistakes. The more mistakes you make—and fix—the more talented you become.

But what of those people who seem spectacularly dumb?
What about those who make the same mistake over and over again? Surely they must learn from their mistakes, so why aren’t they super-talented?

It’s not just about making mistakes. It’s about elimination. Without elimination, all you have is a portfolio full of mistakes. And zero um…’talent.’

How amazing is your brain? What if someone took away your eyes? Could you possibly see with your brain?
Ha, ha, ha…judge for yourself. This video below is not a trick. He’s actually seeing with his brain—the eyes you and I have are just tools. It’s the brain that does all the grunt work.

On May 25, 2001, Erik Weihenmayer became the only blind man in history to reach the summit of the world’s highest peak – Mount Everest. On August 20, 2008, when he stood on top of Carstenz Pyramid, the tallest peak in Austral-Asia, Weihenmayer completed his quest to climb the Seven Summits – the highest mountains on each of the seven continents. Erik is joined by fewer than 100 mountaineers who have accomplished this feat. Additionally, he has scaled El Capitan, a 3300-foot overhanging granite monolith in Yosemite; Lhosar, a 3000-foot ice waterfall in the himalayas; and a difficult and rarely climbed rock face on 17,000-foot Mt. Kenya

In September, 2003, Erik joined 320 stellar athletes from 17 countries to compete in the Primal Quest, the richest and toughest multi-sport adventure race in the world: 457 miles through the Sierra Nevada’s, nine days, sixty thousand feet of elevation gain, and no time-outs. Averaging only two hours of sleep a night, Erik and his team surged past the finish line on Lake Tahoe, becoming one of the 42 teams to cross the finish line out of the 80 teams that began.

Ok, so I’ve ranted about this, but I think Mo Willems has a fantastic angle.

Here’s a brief take on Mo’s angle:
Willems is obsessed with why adults don’t draw — and he wants to do something about it.

“One of the interesting things about cartooning and doodling and drawing,” Willems tells Michele Norris, “is that people stop when they decide they’re not good at it. Nobody stops playing basketball when they realize they’re not going to become a professional. The same thing should apply to cartooning.”

Willems says just sitting and drawing a character brings out empathy in people, and that’s something the world could use more of right now.

One of the biggest reasons children stop drawing is that they see that adults don’t do it, Willems says.
When he goes into classrooms, he says, teachers often ask him to get the kids to draw. But when he does, many of the teachers don’t participate.

“Well, now the kids realize that this is just a baby activity,” he says.
He reminds us that parents are actually cool in kids’ eyes — for a while — and kids want to imitate what they do. “If your kid comes home from school and you say, ‘I’ll be right with you; I’m just finishing a doodle,’ the kid’s going to go, ‘Dude, I want to do that, too!’ ”

He suggests doing what his family does: have a family draw. His family gets a large piece of paper, picks a theme and then everybody draws. They went so far as to paint a wall with chalkboard paint.

Full Interview and Audio at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103818071

You’ll often find people who say they don’t learn well via audio.
That they need to read a transcript instead to understand something better.

That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard.

And there are three reasons why.
1) The way in which we process audio separate from reading.
2) The way in which we ’sit down’ to listen to audio.
3) So-called ‘audio learners’ find reading as well as audio just as easy.

The way in which we process audio separate from reading.
Till very recently there was this crazy myth that we somehow mishmashed the data and stored it in our brain, no matter if it was audio, or video, or text. That information was information, and it just got stored in one area of our brain. Modern research (because of better measurement tools) have shown that different areas of the brain light up when we listen to the exact words in audio, and another part of the brain lights up when we process video. And then quite another when we process text.

The brain actually creates ‘brain maps’ that make richer connections when it can process greater depth and range. So instead of one source of information, the brain accesses many sources almost simultaneously. And those that stubbornly stick their ‘I’m a reader’ not a listener, are just losing out for their stubborness factor.

But how do we know they’re being stubborn?
Because we know how damaged brains work. So in autistic children for instance, the brain does learn better via audio than learning. But most of us don’t have damaged brains.  We have biased brains. This means we’re not willing to push our brains outside our comfort zone, and hence the brain will do what you get it to do.

The more you avoid audio, the more your brain favours text. It indeed makes you faster at processing text, but gives the text a single dimension. So that which you gain in processing power and speed, you lose in dimension and depth.

Which takes us to the second point: The way in which we ’sit down’ to listen to audio—and is flawed from the core!

The way in which we ’sit down’ to listen to audio is exactly the way we read
When was the last time you went for a walk or dusted furniture while reading? You’ve been trained since you were a child to sit in one place and read. So like an obedient 40-year old you sit in one place and listen to audio.

Well, guess what?

Audio is not a medium that is kind to listeners who sit in one place. The brain is able to process words in speech faster than on paper. So when it has to sit in one place and do nothing else, it gets ‘bored.’ You feel sleepy, restless and of course, you sincerely believe audio-learning is not for you.

Audio learning requires movement and action. That’s why we get bored and tired after listening to speakers (even good ones) drone on for two-three hours. The best speakers know the way audio is processed, and hence get you to do stuff, or take breaks. Or whatever.

But I digress.

Because the third point is coming up quickly.

Have you noticed that audio-learners aren’t quite as stubborn?
They’ll happily read a book. Or a document. They don’t need you to take your book and turn it into an audio file. They may prefer audio (because they’ve worked out what we’ve discussed in Point 2), but they have no overwhelming desire to get everything in audio.

Compare this with ‘readers’ and you’ll see a marked difference. ‘Readers’ are militant about transcripts. They’re militant about books. They don’t want to go near audio if they can help it.Yet they have conversations and listen to the radio without any problem. When was the last time they wrote to their radio station or tv station asking for transcripts?

This is why I’m calling ‘readers’ stubborn.
They are so comfortable with speed, that they miss out on true learning.

The point I’m making is that you’re equally capable of learning via audio as text.
And it’s not going to be easy to get outside that comfort zone. Because your brain will resist the move.

So do me a favour. Read that book anyway. Turn your Kindle on, anyway.

But also strap on that iPod and go for a walk and listen to the very same information in audio.  It will do your biased brain as well as your stubbornness a whole lot of good. And keep you both mentally and physically fit!

Did you know that your brain operates in two different modes when it’s going through a learning experience?
A brain in learning mode is completely different from a brain in application mode.

So how is it different?
In the learning phase, the brain is able to take in a complete overview without needing to know specific details. But the moment it switches to application mode, it needs more than just concepts. It needs immediate steps.

So let’s take an example:
E.g. You want to learn to say ‘goodbye’ in Swahili.

Well, you may have heard someone saying ‘goodbye and see you soon’ in Swahili several times. So when you hear the sound, and the sequence of words, your brain already knows that ‘goodbye’ is being said. And the brain knows the meaning of the words being said.

But if you don’t know the meaning of the words, then you simply notice that everyone’s smiling and crying. And you can’t figure out why. When you understand the words, you are now not only understanding it, but able to comprehend it.

But are you able to say it?
No.
Because you still have to work out the pronunciation at the very least.
But a brain that is in learning mode is different from a brain in application mode.
In the learning phase you can take in three days of talk in a seminar (even if you don’t remember it all). But in application mode, you want the most immediate steps.

This is why people don’t learn quickly
They expect to read a book, or listen to an audio and get the concept instantly. But your brain isn’t working like that at all. It’s first taking an overview, then slipping into application trying to decipher the steps.

This is why I will listen to the same thing over and over again
I’ll learn languages by listening, or doing the same thing over and over again. I’ll listen to the same audio five-seven times. And I’ll read as well as make notes of a book, often going back to it to read again. Because I understand my brain.

Do you understand yours?
There’s more efficiency in reading one book five times than there is in reading five books.
There’s more efficiency in listening to one audio several times than listening to ten audio files.
Repetition isn’t for repetition’s sake.

Repetition is meant for the brain to first get an overview, then apply.
So now, read this article twice, will ya?

Then apply it to your reading, listening etc.

Ok, so it’s a big question.
Because there are loads of elements that make a person a super-genius.

But there’s one thing that is guaranteed to stop you from becoming brilliant.
That one thing is the inability to take feedback.

Feedback as in brutal feedback
Feedback as in things you don’t want to hear.
Feedback as in ‘things that make you feel like crap’.

Super-genius is built on such crappy moments
The stars in any field are those that shut up when feedback is being given.
They don’t defend themselves. They just listen. They take notes. They then sit back and do an analysis of what’s being said.

They feel crappy just like you do when you’re being criticised. 

But super-geniuses are super, because they realise that the people giving the feedback aren’t petty.
That the feedback is actually a mechanism to help the genius go up to another level.

So super-geniuses tend take the feedback.
Then they do something that most people don’t.
They correct their actions.
They self-correct.
And they seek more feedback.

But the average-Joe is average because they live in ‘testimonial’ land.
They want people to say nice things about them.
They’re not really interested in feedback.
They’re not really interested in hearing stuff that makes them feel like crap.
And even if they do listen—which they almost never do—they never implement the self-corrective measures.

And so they stay where they are.
Stuck. Unsure. Disheartened. Unwilling to take the brutal feedback.

Brutal feedback is um, brutal.
If you want to become a super-genius, you can’t duck, or weave.
Take the punch. And then self-correct.

Ok, I’m back after my extended ‘vacation’.

And here’s a biggie: I’m amazed at this book. And if you’ve ever wondered about the factor of getting old (and stupid), or wondered how we learn (and unlearn stuff), then you need to read this book. I intend to take snippets of the information and put my own spin to it over the weeks and months to come. You’ll understand all of that information so much better, and how it relates to talent—if you read this book.

If there was one recommendation I’d make for Feb 2008-Feb 2009, it would be this one.

The Brain That Changes Itself

Do you know the story of the Rosetta Stone?

You do, don’t you?
You  know how archaeologists couldn’t make head or tail of hieroglyphics.
And it’s not like they didn’t try. They just weren’t able to figure out what those nice little pictures on the Egyptian monuments really stood for. And then of course, in mid-July 1799, these scientists and archaeologists ran into this massive rock, which they dubbed the Rosetta Stone.

What was so dramatic about the Stone?
The drama was that there were three translations of one passage carved on the Stone. Namely Demotic, Hieroglyphic and Greek. And since the kind folk who found the stone knew Greek, they were able to ‘de-code’ the Hieroglyphics.

But what has this got to do with your learning?
I’ve been trying to learn Spanish since I was in school. I first tried to learn under some Spanish Jesuits. Then I bought a Harrap’s Audio. Then raided the library more than once to borrow some Spanish CDs or tapes.  And no it doesn’t stop there. I went for Spanish classes for a whole year.

And what bugs me is that every three year old in South America can probably speak better Spanish than I could, despite all of this trouble. But then I ran into a language series called—ironically—the Rosetta Stone. That’s when I first started to decode the language. And got much better at learning words and phrases. But I still wasn’t having fun, till I ran into Coffee Break Spanish.

I’d found my Rosetta Stone
In a matter of days, I was not only learning Spanish, but having fun. So much fun that I decided to learn Spanish and French at the same time. Like the original Rosetta Stone, I was deciphering two languages simultaneously.

For some people, their Rosetta Stone is reading.
For some, it’s listening to audio.
For some, it’s being in groups and working in a live workshop.
For some, it’s working alone.

Whatever the method, recognise there is a Rosetta Stone.
It’s not that  things are too hard to learn, and you’re not talented.
All it actually means, is that you haven’t found your Rosetta Stone.

Yet!

¡Hasta pronto!

Just 5 minutes drive from where we live. The splendour of Rangitoto - a now dormant volcano.

Most people don’t take breaks.
They see it as counter-productive.

They’re wrong.
Breaks, when planned, are what makes your work productive.
And we plan our breaks every year, so our brains can boot down, and come back refreshed and renewed.

As I wrote in 5000bc:
I learned this from a friend, Julia. She books all her vacations in advance. Long before she knows what’s going to turn up in the year. Then the vacation becomes non-negotiable. I thought that was a cool idea. We’ve been doing it almost every year since 2004.

I found that vacations are not a nice-to-have. They’re a crucial part of relaxing the brain. The years when I’ve not taken a break, I’ve achieved less. And earned less.

Have a good break.

We certainly will. 

You may not have heard of Paul Wolfe.
You may never hear of Paul Wolfe.

But someday soon Paul Wolfe will grow his business.
And by the time we finish with the year 2012, Paul will be extremely successful.

So what is this prediction based on?
You see Paul doesn’t have many subscribers to his website (At last count he had less than 20).
In fact, he just started doing YouTube Videos a while ago (Maybe a month or less).
And those videos have bad lighting. And aren’t something magical.

But the magic isn’t in the videos.
Or the subscriber list.
It’s in the daily routine.
You see, every night before he goes to bed, Paul writes down what he’s done every single day.
And the achievement for the day.
And every single day he’s doing a little bit more. And more. And even more, as you may expect.

Which tells me one thing.
I don’t care how talented Paul really is.
I don’t care if his videos never improve.
I know that he’ll succeed.

Because the DNA of successful people is exactly the same. They keep at it. They do stuff every day, and keep at it relentlessly.
Which is why this is my prediction for 2012.

Paul Wolfe will be running a reasonably successful business.
Despite the recession.
Despite the blah, blah.
Despite everything you hear.
He’ll do it.

Watch this space.
Or watch his videos.
http://uk.youtube.com/user/howtoplaybassdotcom

And here’s the reasoning why: http://www.psychotactics.com/artmastery

You may not follow baseball.
I don’t.
But there’s a really good baseball player called Alex Rodriguez (often called A-Rod).
He was always headed to be a good player.

But he did something different than most of us.
He decided to be great.

So how do you get to greatness?
http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/how-did-a-rod-get-so-good/

Yes it should be. Because we learn best when we’re relaxed.
But most learning isn’t fun at all.

If I told you that you have to learn how to learn the new version of a program, would it be fun?
If I told you that you have to learn the chords to a new song would it be fun?
If I told you that you had to drive to a new part of town, would it be fun?

In most cases, it’s not fun at all
In most cases, the brain has to literally go into a focus mode, because the learning is new.
And that put enormous strain on the brain.
The more complex the activity, the more the brain needs to work out the steps and master them one by one.
And learning becomes difficult. Even tedious. Because you’re making so many mistakes.

Twyla Tharp is a world-famous choreographer and the author of the book: The Creative Habit.
In the book she talks about the fact that talent is created by habit. And that while habit doesn’t have to be routine, it has to be prepared for with routine.And routine often means doing the same thing over and over. And over again. Always tweaking. Always improving. But always aware that the fun begins once you’ve stopped making squillions of mistakes.

Of course this is a contentious topic
Because learning can be designed to be fun. And you can have lots of fun learning a new skill. But most learning isn’t fun.
Because most teachers/trainers/coaches take themselves so darned seriously. Which means there is the boredom factor. And you will run into that boredom factor. And if you can get over the boredom factor, you’ll get a factor of mastery.

And that’s when it will truly be fun.

P.S. When I learn a new shot in badminton, it’s not much fun because I have to learn two-three things to get that shot right. But as I master one thing, then the next, and then the next, I get more control; more mastery. And then it becomes fun. Of course what’s really a lot of fun is simply going into the game and winning all those points playing the shot well.